Perugino: Nullify Washington dominance

William Perugino
Columnist

The federal government in Washington has grown to the level where it is dominating all aspects of our lives. The answer is in our own backyards. The states have the power to stop "Obamacare" and all other forms of out-of-control federal government mandates and overregulation from all agencies. If states want nothing to do with National Healthcare as proposed by Barack Obama or Congress, then they should refuse it.

Let's look at the law. The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The Bill of Rights was established because our Founding Fathers feared that the Constitution did not go far enough in restricting the central government. Key states and powerful delegates such as Patrick Henry said they would not support the formation of a new government if the Constitution did not contain a Bill of Rights, a supreme law to establish basic and fundamental human rights that could never, for all future American generations, be altered or encroached upon by government. So the framers of our Constitution came up with ten God-given freedoms.

The last of these basic foundational principles was the one to protect the sovereignty and the autonomy of the states.

The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people."

This amendment underscores the purpose of the Constitution to limit government and forbids the federal government from becoming more powerful than the "creator." The states in this case were the creator. They formed the federal government. Does anyone believe rationally that the states intended to form a new central government to control the states at will? Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution details what duties the federal government will be responsible for. Anything not mentioned in Article 1, Sec. 8 is "reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Hence, the federal government was not allowed to expand or assume power. The feds had only discrete and enumerated and very limited powers. Omnipotence was the last thing the Founding Fathers intended to award the newly formed federal government.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mack/Printz v U.S. that "States are not subject to federal direction." In Mack/Printz, the Supreme Court stated once and for all that the only thing "supreme" is the constitution itself. Justice Scalia opined for the majority in Mack/Printz, that, "Our citizens would have two political capacities, one state and one federal, each protected from incursion by the other." So yes, it is the duty of the State to stop the Obamacare "incursion." To emphasize this principle Scalia quotes James Madison, "The local or municipal authorities form distinct and independent portions of the Supremacy, no more subject within their respective spheres, to the general authority than the general authority is subject to them, within its own sphere" (The Foundry).

It is in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution and anything not found within this section belongs to the states or to the people. So where does health care belong? The last place it belongs is with the president or Congress. It is not their responsibility and the states need to make sure that Obama does not overstep his authority.

So do the states have to take the bullying of the federal government? No. The states do not have to take or support or pay for Obamacare or anything else from Washington, DC. The states can tell national healthcare proposals or laws to take a flying leap off the Washington monument. We are not subject to federal direction.

In the final order pursuant to the Mack/Printz ruling Scalia warned, "The federal government may neither, issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States' officers, or those of their political subdivisions, to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. Such commands are fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty." It is rather obvious that nationalized healthcare definitely qualifies as a "federal regulatory program."

The solution is not pleading with or protesting to Washington. Such actions are misdirected dreams expecting tyrants will miraculously stop their tyranny. Tyrants have never stopped their own corrupt ways. However, in our system of "dual sovereignty," the states can do it. If we are to take back America and keep this process peaceful, then state and local officials will have to step up to the plate.